A
Sustainable, Luxurious Life, for the Entire World: A Practical Utopia

Is Achievable Today

The Walden Three Project has developed an engineering model
(click here) of a super-efficient, car-free, sustainable city
that uses extensive recycling, permaculture, and integrated, co-generation,
pollution-free factories to manufacture most of what its citizens
consume. The project is based upon ideas from many different disciplines,
which have been time-tested. The city is built with proven technology
available today.

Anything
that saves labor and resources makes us richer as a whole. Our
engineering model is apolitical. It is just a labor and resource
saving device. It frees them for whatever the political-economic
body wants. Our model allows political systems to maximize their
available labor and resources. Thus the underlying basis of economics:
conservation. There is no need to "take" from the
rich to solve our economic problems. This is a common economic fallacy.
In fact, the rich will profit and benefit greatly from what we propose
here.

Libertarians, socialists, objectivists, communists, fascists, capitalists,
or a combination of economic systems can use our hypothetical city-factory-machine.
Libertarians or objectivists could float such a city in international
waters free of all governments and "freeloaders" (see
abandoned novel - New
Hong Kong). Communists and far left socialists can use it to
eliminate capitalists. One of our plans is built from mud and starts
in a prison (see current novel in progress: Walden
Three).

While there is no one solution for everyone, most need and prefer
some group's economic and political compromise. Our compromise has
"radical", "middle-american", "conservative",
"liberal", "capitalist", "socialist",
"religious", "atheist" and other components.
Anything that must be pure, must fail. A world wide system must
allow for all.

Please comment. We invite you to play with the model. Please correct
us. Give us your insights and add to it. Use what you like. Everything
we create is free and without copyright. Why are we doing this?
Selfishness! The founder, chief benefactor, and CEO of Walden Three
realizes he does not need any more material things. He finds
more money and things to take care of boring, while helping and
seeing people change for the better is fun. A material thing can
only give you a good feeling and has a cost. A spiritual act or
gift returns a better feeling and, on average, a profit -- usually
the beneficiary will return the favor or pass it along (see Pay
It Forward), which eventually comes back to the giver with a
profit. Money is a merely a symbol, open to interpretation. Feelings
are real. A better world to live in produces a cornucopia of good
feelings, a huge profit.

Energy:
The city recycles “waste” energy from its factories
and electric generation plant by piping steam to heat air and water
for businesses and homes throughout the city. This is the same method
used by factory towns of old New England. Steam is also used to
power absorption
refrigeration for cooling of buildings, the same basic process
used in propane-powered refrigerators in motor homes. Thus, the
city is heated and cooled essentially for free (there is the cost
of piping, maintenance, etc.) and the electricity normally used
by cities for heating and cooling is saved, more than quadrupling
efficiencies of today’s public utilities. Electric power required
for motors, engines, electronics, etc. is generated with combined-cycle
gas-turbine technology fueled by synthesis gas made by converting
biomass and organic waste materials in a plasma gasification unit.

Transportation
and Freight:
Standardized packaging and a collection system designed for long-term
use and convenience maximizes recycling efforts. There are no automobiles
or trucks within the city though there are rental companies on its
perimeter. Recycling, freight delivery, and personal transport is
streamlined with a computerized, luxurious, and extensive mass transit
system. Transportation needs are further minimized by home offices,
video conferencing rooms, and super high-speed Internet facilities.

Health Care:
Insurance, as well as supplemental programs like Medicaid, would
not be needed because Walden Three considers healthcare, from cradle
to grave for all conditions, a necessity. Instead of taxing businesses,
the city provides and manages healthcare through its community service
system.

Hospitals would be available for serious procedures like surgery,
however, the emphasis would be on nursing stations located in each
building and at-home care. Using the city’s Cybernet, which
would have the latest, reliable medical information and remote observation
and data collection, nurses and physicians would make initial evaluations.
Nursing stations are located in each building for more thorough
initial examinations and scheduled exams by physicians.

In sum, Walden Three provides quality care to every citizen, not
sub-standard care that views each person as a group of risk factors
or ‘the best care [your limited] money can buy.’
(more)

Education:
Education and training from pre-school to post-graduate is free.
The school system is based on the student’s worthwhile, realistic
life goals which they set for themselves with the aid of counselors.
The life goals are made relevant to the person's age. Of course,
those goal will mature as the child matures. If a child wants to
be a fireman, the teacher says, “Okay, we will start training you
to be a fireman, but to be a fireman you’ll have to know all about
gases, heat energy, combustion, etc. To learn that, you’ll need
to know math, reading, etc.” Thus, school would be more personal,
exciting, and useful. From the beginning, children are not schooled
in classrooms, but at home using programmed, computerized learning
systems. The theory they learn on the computers is combined with
skill training learned by participating in running the city, where
it is safe for them. Click here to see a
more detailed description.

Employment,
Avocation, & Leisure:
Every individual can have a job that he or she enjoys, for life.
The members of the community work at jobs running the city, their
community service in return for the “free” items the city provides.
Since the city produces the majority of what citizens consume, all
citizens are guaranteed employment. Because of the huge increase
in efficiency brought by rational planning and technology that minimizes
waste, the citizens need only to work a small part of today’s work
week. Their much increased free time can be spent starting a new
business, working for someone else, with their family, on artistic
endeavors, sports, education, travel, or whatever they desire. Moreover,
working together to run the community builds a bond and an understanding
of the city's problems and advantages among the citizens. With the
citizens’ working knowledge, continuous improvements to the city
come naturally.

Business/Economics:
We conclude that the solution lies in a mixed economy, an intelligent
combination of capitalism and socialism tended by people who receive
incentives based on the quality of their work, the best of each
system. In fact, every country uses a mixed economy. All families
from the beginning of time have shared work, rewards, and facilities
among the family, a socialism system. Social Security, education
for all children, child abuse laws, protection of the environment,
work safety regulations, etc--all elements of socialism--would be
preserved. Every citizen is guaranteed health care, education, food,
clothing, housing and utilities in return for their part-time labor
running the city.

No
Taxes: The Walden Three Project has no sales, income, property,
tangible, or intangible taxes, nor fees. (Click
here to see how to eliminate taxes in the USA today) People
who want non-residential locations pay a fixed rent (no percentage
over-rides or escalation) to offset construction costs and maintenance.
The city fosters new businesses by providing online support and
efficient customer service that waits on you, not you waiting on
them. Citizens can apply for an available “bricks and mortar” business
location, or pay for the construction of a new one using materials
produced locally at cost. Each apartment and business complex has
a state-of-the-art office support complex for printing, copying,
etc., as well as secretarial services, meeting rooms, and catering
facilities. Designers, engineers, inventors, machinists, sample-makers,
factories, artists, and writers are connected online. Thus the city
assists businesses in turning new, important ideas and inventions
into reality.

Since
needs, by definition, must be met, the city is the single supplier
providing citizens with all utilities, waste processing, transportation,
and housing in return for the citizens’ community service time without
the unnecessary costs of promotion, duplication of facilities, accounting,
legal assistance, etc. The city maximizes service by redirecting
this previously wasted labor towards improving the quality of its
products or services. The system rewards those that do their job
well with vigorous, positive feedback, social prerogatives, and
reduced work time. The cybernation of services (computers and high
speed internet in every home and business) combined with ample staffing
reduces wait time to a minimum.

Life
Skills, Philosophy, Psychology:
The city guides people to set realistic and worthwhile life goals.
Part of a realistic goal is a realistic plan to achieve it. The
school and socialization systems train citizens in Rational
Emotive Behavior Theory [REBT], the modern, scientific combination
of Stoicism and Epicureanism. This teaches rational acceptance of
life and one’s self, and how to control emotions, preventing or
correcting emotional and thinking problems early.

The
city improves behavior by helping people find and set practical
life goals. They are then trained to reward themselves as they accomplish
short-term goals to that end.

Law/Crime
Prevention:
George Washington said, "The firmest pillar of democracy is
the true administration of justice." Note that he said justice,
not law. Recall that it was illegal to be a Jew during the Nazi
rule of Germany.

The
city's civil law system is based on giving "value for value
received" using bona fide [good faith] contracts, not "let
the buyer beware" in which the clever defraud the average.
When a person enters into a contract, it should be with confidence
that the legal outcome will be fair. The legal system is streamlined
with legal aids staffed sufficiently to give everyone fast, equal
legal protection.

Since
everyone is provided with necessities, crime would be greatly reduced,
the remainder of crime would largely be caused by mental problems.
Mothers and fathers would never have to steal to feed or take care
of their babies.

The
city’s solution to preventing crime is the same as a small town
or village: Watchful eyes--everyone knows what is happening. All
public areas are viewable from any computer terminal, open-access
video observation, so anyone in the city can see through any public
camera at any time. However, there will not be cameras in areas
where there is an expectation of privacy: dressing rooms, public
restrooms, at home, or in the car. The system allows a parent to
"follow" their child to the playground or school room
and report any bullying or accidents to the authorities for immediate
attention. Parents can watch what their children are being taught
and how they are handled by their teachers. All of the city’s government
buildings, bureaus, and meetings would be viewable at all times,
true “government in the sunshine“.

The
system interrupts anti-social behavior at its start, swiftly, without
revenge. The city's socialization (corrections) system does not
lock up one disturbed individual with three others in an eight-by-ten
foot room for decades and expect them to come out knowing how to
get along with normal people. Rather, the city assigns police officers
and councilors that stay with the troubled or violent individuals
at all times during their socialization, physically and electronically,
until the offenders can control their emotions and function well
in society.

Thus,
the criminal system will be swift and sure, but never harsh. As
behaviorist B. F. Skinner discovered, punishment is a poor teacher,
a last resort. Skinner’s experiments proved the certainty of the
reward or punishment determines its effectiveness, unless the punishment
is so brutal it damages the subject for life. If someone gets away
with something ten times, they have been rewarded ten times. If
police then get lucky and catch him or her, whether they punish
that person or not, the net effect is ten rewards and one punishment,
a net reinforcement of the unwanted behavior. The offender knows
the punishment is a fluke, and is not likely to happen again for
some time. However, if the person gets punished and the reward taken
back each and every time, that person will stop the unwanted behavior
quickly.

Spirituality:We
have observed that all the major religions have a universal message:
Love and help each other. Acceptance, mercy, and meaningful work
are prerequisites to happiness. There is no wealth without happiness.

Walden
Three is a work in progress. We invite criticism, comments, improvements,
and suggestions. The burden of proof is upon us.